Mad dogs and parsis: The Bombay dog riots of 1832

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

Volumn 11, Issue 1, 2001, Pages 13-30

  Palsetia, Jesse S ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 34447285402     PISSN: 13561863     EISSN: 14740591     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s1356186301000128     Document Type: Review

References (34)

1. K. N. Seervai and B. B. Patell, "Gujarat Parsis from their Earliest Settlement to the Present Time", in Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, ed. J. M. Campbell (Bombay, 1899), IX, Part II, pp. 183-254
2. For a history of Zoroastrianism, see Mary Boyce, History of Zoroastrianism (Leiden, 1975)
3. S. F. Desai, A Community at the Cross Road (Bombay, 1945), p. 5
4. Maria Graham, A Journal of a Residence in India (Edinburgh, 1813), pp. 37, 42
5. Govind Narayan Madgaokar, Mumbaiche Varman (Bombay, 1863), pp. 135-36 (Marathi)
6. Bombay Courier, June 9, 1832
7. The Sag did ceremony (literally "dog's sight") is performed about the deceased to confirm death and ward off Evil, with the presence of the "four-eyed" dog, described as with "spots" above the eyes. On the dog, and Zoroastrian death and funerary ceremonies, see Maneckji Nusservanji Dhalla, History of Zoroastrianism (Bombay, 1963), pp. 103-4, 284-85
8. J. J. Modi, The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Parsees (Bombay, 1927), pp. 51-85
9. Delphine Menant, The Parsis, iii, (1917), Translated from the French by Anthony D. Mango (Bombay, 1996), pp. 55-95
10. Dinsha Edulji Wacha, Shells from the Sands of Bombay: My Recollections and Reminiscences, 1860-75 (Bombay, 1920), pp. 37, 49. 98-102, 413-14, 419
11. R. A. Wadia, Scions of Lowjee Wadia (Bombay, 1904), p. 1
12. Jehangir R. P. Mody, Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy: The First Indian Knight and Baronet (1783-1859) (Bombay, 1959), pp. 33-34
13. Bomanjee Byramjee Patell, The Parsec Patells of Bombay (Bombay, 1876), pp. 5-14, 28-39
14. R. E. Enthoven, The Tribes and Castes of Bombay (Bombay, 1920-22), iii, pp. 413-15, 425, 427
15. The Nasasalars constitute a special hereditary class among the Parsis, whose primary role is that of corpse bearers, transporting the dead to the Dakhma or Tower of Silence of the Parsis. The Dakhma consists of a large circular roofless structure containing a well where the Parsi dead are placed to be consumed by vultures as part of the Parsis' practice of excarnation of the dead, known as Dakhmenashini. The Nasasalars also act as criers for the community proclaiming the decisions of the Punchayet, and as a norminal police of the community, ostensibly under the control of the Parsi Punchayet. On the Nasasalars, and Dakhma, see Enthoven, iii, pp. 215, 219
16. Sohrab P. Davar, The History of the Parsi Punchayet of Bombay (Bombay, 1949)
17. J. D. 1834 Vol. 24/323, p. 8
18. K. N. Banaji, Memoirs of the late Framji Cowasji Banaji (Bombay, 1892), pp. 23-24
19. Report of the Board of Education 1840-41 (Bombay, 1841), p. 65
20. First Report of the Bombay Native School Book and School Society (Bombay, 1824), pp. 2-3
21. Kenneth Ballhatchet, Social Policy and Social Change in Western India 1817-1830 (Oxford, 1957), pp. 260-61
22. See Williamson Ramsay, Memorandum of the Life and Public Charities of Jamsetjee Jejcebhoy (London, 1855), pp. 130-32
23. D. E. Wacha, A Financial Chapter in the History of Bombay City (Bombay, 1910)
24. S. D. Mehta, The Cottom Mills of India, 1814 to 1954 (Bombay, 1954), pp. 13-15, 21-22
25. On the Zoroastrian view of life and the nature of Parsi charity see Dhalla, pp. 75-80, 198
26. R. E. Kennedy, "The Protestant Ethic and the Parsis", American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 68 (1962-63), pp. 11-20
27. David L. White, "From Crisis to Philanthropy: The Dynamics of Eighteenth Century Parsi Philanthropy", Modern Asian Studies, 25, 2 (1991), pp. 303-20
28. John R. Hinnells, "The Flowering of Zoroastrian Benevolence: Parsi Charities in the 19th and 20th Centuries", in Papers in Honour of Professor Mary Boyce, Hommages et Opera Minora, X (Leiden, 1985), pp. 201-325
29. On Parsi anglophilism, see The Parsi: The English Journal of the Parsis and a High Class Illustrated Monthly, 1905-06, 1(1-12) Bombay
30. For vignettes of Parsi accomplishments and lifestyle see H. D. Damkhanawala, Parsi Lustre on Indian Soil (Bombay, 1939)
31. Damkhanawala, Parsis and Sports (Bombay, 1935)
32. See Oriental Christian Spectator, June 1839
33. Dhanjibhai Nauroji, From Zoroaster to Christ: An Autobiographical Sketch of the Rev. Dhanjibhai Nauroji: The Modern Convert to Christianity (Edinburgh, 1909)
34. Erskine Perry, Cases Illustrative of Oriental Life: Decided in H. M. Court at Bombay, The Application of English Law to India (New Delhi, 1853), pp. 103-9